Ask the Vets this week!

Anyone have any questions they'd like to ask a vet this week? I'll have a "new" - to the show, anyway veterinarian on, and Dr. Carol and Dr. Don as well, so any questions will be appreciated, and I will ask the cranberry juice for kitty UTI's question I didn't get a chance to last week!

Any nutrition or food questions are also welcome!

I need them by 1:30 Thursday afternoon, we're recording starting at 2 this week!

Karen, I know that I already asked a question a few weeks ago so if you don't receive enough questions for this week here's my question: My cat Ziggy Stardust was at the groomers and they always check the animals anal glands. She's been checked before and has never had any problems. This time they said she had a small problem with her anal glands. I guess when they squeezed them, some stuff came out. My question is how do I keep her from having any more problems with her anal glands? She'll be 7 years old in June so she's not even a senior cat yet. I feed her both canned and dry food which is grain free.

Karen, would you please ask the vets what they think about giving cats tap water to drink?

I use a Brita filter pitcher for my own drinking water. The water tastes better, if nothing else. For a while I was giving my cats this water too, and then I happened to think: Wait a minute, they use their tongues as toilet paper! And surely tap water wasn't going to be worse than that, so I started giving them the tap water instead.

Then one day a few months ago someone said to me that the chlorine in tap water can cause real serious harm to cats ( kidneys maybe? I forget which organ she said), so I've been giving them the Brita filtered water again since then.

My question is: is that true? or are there other impurities in tap water that are potentially harmful to them?

The tap water in Ann Arbor is supposedly very pure as tap water goes.

Thanks very much,
Pat

Last edited by phesina; 04-18-2013 at 02:30 PM.

I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?"
Death thought about it.
CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE.

Okay, Tracy! As for Miss Ziggy and her anal glands, they said as animals get older, the muscles can weaken a bit, and make problems more likely to develop. Getting some more fiber in her diet will help - Dr. Kevin gives his cats a tablespoon of canned pumpkin in its food a couple times a week as an easy preventative. Try that!

Thanks Karen. I'm not sure if she likes canned pumpkin or not. Some of my cats do and some don't.

I already have another question for next week. Some of my cats have dandruff. How can I help to prevent this or at least help to clear it up? Both of my long haired male cats Alani & Blaze have some white flakes. They will be three on April 30th and they look like they're Maine Coon mixes. They currently only eat dry grain free cat food and they get some chicken broth every night. I wish I could also feed them canned food but every time I've tried to give them some they end up getting diarrhea. They had giarrdia as kittens before I adopted them so maybe this scarred their intestinal tract.

Thanks Karen. I'm not sure if she likes canned pumpkin or not. Some of my cats do and some don't.

I already have another question for next week. Some of my cats have dandruff. How can I help to prevent this or at least help to clear it up? Both of my long haired male cats Alani & Blaze have some white flakes. They will be three on April 30th and they look like they're Maine Coon mixes. They currently only eat dry grain free cat food and they get some chicken broth every night. I wish I could also feed them canned food but every time I've tried to give them some they end up getting diarrhea. They had giarrdia as kittens before I adopted them so maybe this scarred their intestinal tract.

Okay, I'll send you the audio files when I get them, because they discussed other things than pumpkin, that's just the one that stuck in my head!

Karen, would you please ask the vets what they think about giving cats tap water to drink?

I use a Brita filter pitcher for my own drinking water. The water tastes better, if nothing else. For a while I was giving my cats this water too, and then I happened to think: Wait a minute, they use their tongues as toilet paper! And surely tap water wasn't going to be worse than that, so I started giving them the tap water instead.

Then one day a few months ago someone said to me that the chlorine in tap water can cause real serious harm to cats ( kidneys maybe? I forget which organ she said), so I've been giving them the Brita filtered water again since then.

My question is: is that true? or are there other impurities in tap water that are potentially harmful to them?

The tap water in Ann Arbor is supposedly very pure as tap water goes.

Thanks very much,
Pat

What was the answer to the question about water? The water in my building has an odd chlorine-y smell, especially the cold water. Sometimes I buy drinking water at the supermarket and sometimes I boil tap water and let it cool, which seems to help. We get Lake Michigan water. Other residents in my building have noticed the same problem and a lot of people use bottled water.

Thank you,
Elyse

I've been Boo'd... right off the stage!

Aaahh, I have been defrosted! Thank you, Bonny and Asiel!
Brrrr, I've been Frosted! Thank you, Asiel and Pomtzu!

"That's the power of kittens (and puppies too, of course): They can reduce us to quivering masses of Jell-O in about two seconds flat and make us like it. Good thing they don't have opposable thumbs or they'd surely have taken over the world by now." -- Paul Lukas